Old Love New Love
by ronko45
Summary: Rukia has to go back to the Soul Society to work for her brother, leaving a sad Ichigo behind. She meets with Renji and old flames are brought back up, while Ichigo has to deal with a new partner on the job thanks to Kisuke... RenRukia; IchiHime


In this story, Ichigo has never met Orihime before, and Rukia is in a squad with Byakuya. I will remind you, like in the summary, it is IchiHime and RenRukia.

I only own the writing on this page you are reading…

Old Love; New Love

-X-

Ichigo stared at the girl under him, sweat drenching both of their bodies. His pumps continued faster as they both reached their max. With the pressure relieved, Ichigo slid out of the girl and lay next to her, not looking her way. Rukia caressed his face and tried to get him to face her, but it was no good.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I just had to accept the offer, you know I did." Ichigo finally sighed and looked at her.

"You'll be so far away now. I can't stand the idea of not being able to touch you…"

"Maybe this'll work out. As long as we want it to, everything will be okay between us."

"Alright, but you owe me a going away present…" Ichigo kissed her caressing her body once again.

"Wasn't what we did just minutes ago…?"

"No." interrupted Ichigo.

"Ichigo I have to leave early tomorrow morning…" The kiss between them deepened.

"Then let me have this last night…"

The sun shone brightly inside of the room, creating a beautiful warm glow. Rukia looked at the sleeping man as she recalled last night, and it hurt her; she loved Ichigo, very much so, but it would never work out if they couldn't see each other. He didn't seem to understand that, but that's what she loved about the man: he never gave up. She ran her hand through Ichigo's orange locks, and kissed him a final goodbye as she walked out of the room.

Ichigo rolled over onto his side, and his hands extended out, hoping to meet Rukia's body, but nothing was there. "Oh yeah…" he said sadly, bringing the covers over his face, hoping to stay in the safety of his apartment walls forever. His phone cut through the silence, ringing incessantly. Ichigo felt he had an obligation to himself to not answer the phone, because of Rukia, but the phone didn't think so. It continued ringing until finally Ichigo picked up; it was his boss.

"Ichigo!" said a cheerful voice.

"What?"

"You need to get here now."

"Why? I don't work until later."

"Yeah, but I need you here now."

"Come on Kisuke…"

"Be here in an hour." Ichigo threw the cell phone on the bed and watched as it bounced onto the floor. He sighed deeply as he went to retrieve it, and as he got ready for work.

Ichigo lived relatively close to Urahara's Shop, which was where he worked in the afternoon. He stepped up to the door and saw Ururu and Jinta sweeping.

"Hey you guys."

"Hi Ichigo," said a meek Ururu, "I'm sorry about Rukia."

"It's okay."

"Boss is waiting inside." Jinta said. Ichigo thanked them and went inside. He went into the room passed the merchandise, and saw Urahara. Just as he was about to walk in, he saw another form sitting on the tatami mats, across from his boss.

"Ichigo," said Urahara, waving Ichigo over to him, "this is Orihime Inoue. She'll be your new partner." She waved to Ichigo and he waved back.

"You called me out here to meet _her_?" Ichigo whispered harshly, "why?"

"I can see you're sad about Rukia, but if I didn't have a reason I wouldn't have called you out."

"What do you want?" asked Ichigo, fearing the answer.

"She needs to be trained."

"I couldn't have trained her when I was on shift!" he whispered and yelled at the same time.

"Better now than never." Urahara turned to Orihime. "Ichigo here will show you around and how to get a handle of things okay?"

"Yes sir," replied Orihime.

Rukia waited patiently as the other black-robed soul reapers exited her brother's office before she went inside. "Byakuya…" she said. He was looking down at some files, as if he didn't know she was there. Byakuya's lieutenant looked up at the familiar voice and jumped out of his seat, rushing up to Rukia to give her a big hug.

"Rukia!" he said, "How are you?"

"Hey Renji," she said giving him a quick hug and stepping back. She motioned to Byakuya who was watching them and Renji went back to work.

"What are you waiting for? Get to work," said Byakuya.

Rukia sat across from Renji and took some papers into her hand. "I'm glad you're back," he said stamping the appropriate documents. Hours later, they knew they were finally finished when Byakuya stood up and left the room. Renji started cleaning up when he asked Rukia if she wanted to go out.

"I don't… I just…"

Renji smiled back at her as if he knew what she was guilty about. "If it's Ichigo, then don't worry. We'll be going out as friends."

"If it's as friends, then alright." Even if it was with a friend, she couldn't help but feel guilty knowing that Ichigo wouldn't let her go that easily.

Ichigo and Orihime walked out of the shop and down the street to their first stop. "So what can you do, why did Kisuke ask you to work for him?"

"I don't know. One day he just came up to me and asked me if I would work for him. I needed a job so I just accepted."

Ichigo shook his head. "So you accepted the job without knowing what was in store?" Orihime smiled and nodded. "Alright I'll walk you through. Kisuke deals in making ghosts pass over. He hires us to do this job for him. If the ghost stays, they turn into malevolent creatures that will bring destruction to everyone associated. Our job is to make sure that doesn't happen. Just stay close and pay attention."

The duo walked around the town in search of any lingering spirits. "Ohh look! There's a ghost." Orihime ran to the specter floating in front of a window. "Hi ghosty… what's your name?" The specter disregarded her and continued staring through the window.

"I'll make him pass on." Ichigo pulled out his zanpakto and flipped it so that the hilt was facing the ghost.

"Wait," yelled Orihime, as she blocked the sword's path. "Why don't we let him pass on naturally? Let's find out why he's here first." Ichigo defeated, let her go on as planned.

"Mr. Ghost…" He finally looked to the two beings standing next to him.

"You can see me?" They nodded.

"Why are you here?" asked Orihime, "why can't you pass on?"

"That's easy," he said with spite. He pointed to the window. Ichigo and Orihime peered into the house and saw a woman and a man.

"What about them?" asked Ichigo getting annoyed that it was taking this long to finish his job.

"I told her that I would help her get out of her marriage." He started to get angry now. "My parents made my sister get married to a stranger. I knew it was a bad idea, and so did she, but we could do nothing about it. Before I went away, I had promised her that I would help her… that I would make sure he never got near her again, but when I went to make good on this promise, I died. A car swerved into me while I was driving and I fell off of the cliff. No one knew who had died, and my sister doesn't know that I'm dead. I think she thinks I abandoned her and now she's living miserably all because of me."

"You couldn't have known you were going to die; it's not your fault," consoled Orihime. She turned to Ichigo. "I think we should help him fulfill his promise."

"What? Why would we? We only deal with dead people, not living!"

"Do what you want to do, but my job is to help ghosts pass on." To the ghost, "come with me. I'm going to let your sister know you're dead."

Orihime walked to the front door of the ghost's sister's house and rang the doorbell. The sister opened. "Hello."

"Excuse me, you don't know me, but I was sent here by your brother." Her eyes grew wide and she stepped outside.

"Where was he? I thought that he had completely given up on me." The tears ran down the woman's face as she told her tale.

"Quite the opposite," came a voice out of nowhere. Ichigo walked up to the girl and explained what the ghost had told them.

"He's dead!"

"Yes," answered Orihime, "He's been watching over you, trying to find a way to help you. But listen, he needs to pass on. He can't stay here forever watching over you."

The woman looked around, "Is he here right now?" Ichigo and Orihime nodded. "Tamaki… I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I should've known the only reason you didn't keep your promise was because you were dead, and even still you wanted to keep it. I want you to pass over now.

"What about you, your marriage?" said Orihime for Tamaki.

"I'll deal with that on my own. I was selfish as a child, and I'm not going to keep you from happiness any longer. Please… for me…" Tamaki floated forward, and gave his sister a hug. Her eyes were wide again as she felt warm light envelope her. "He's hugging me, isn't he…?" She hugged her brother back, tears rolling down her face. Once the warmth was gone, she knew her brother had made it to a better place.

Ichigo and Orihime were silent as the rest of the day went on. Finally as they neared the Urahara shop, Ichigo spoke. "That was reckless."

"I'm sorry, but if they can pass on by themselves, then we should let them."

Ichigo sighed. "No I'm sorry. I got a lot on my mind and… whatever, good work today. How about I walk you home to make up for my rude behavior this morning?" They walked down the street eyes looking forward, yet Orihime couldn't keep her eyes off of the man. She desperately wanted to ask him what was wrong… she could feel that he had something troubling him. She was thinking of this, and didn't notice he was talking to her. "Are we close?" Snapping out of her thoughts, she looked around and pointed to an apartment across the street.

"Alright we're here." Orihime stopped in front of her door. "Are you sure you don't want to come in?"

"No thanks." Ichigo said waving good-bye to her as she waved back. "I'll see you tomorrow." Ichigo looked back at the door as it closed and had a troubled smile on his face. He stuffed his hands in his pocket, and hurried off to his house.

Renji sat down at the table in the corner of the restaurant and looked at the menu as the waiter walked over. "What do you want?"

"Wow, you're asking me what I want? That's a first," joked Rukia.

"Shut up. Only because I haven't seen you in a while… and what are you getting your hopes up for. You still have to pay for half!"

"What! You're going to make me pay for half?"

"Hell yeah." He said as if it was obvious.

"Cheapskate."

"Idiot."

"Stupid." The waiter watched them with a smile, and then cleared his throat. They ordered their food and the waiter left. "You really are stupid…"

"You just had to get the last word in didn't you?" Rukia laughed and soon after Renji joined in too. After the meal, they walked out of the restaurant into the darkening sky. They walked side by side until they reached Rukia's house.

"I'll see you later," said Rukia opening the door. Just as she was about to step inside she felt Renji's arms around her body.

"I'm glad you're back," he whispered almost inaudibly, as he walked away, not even looking back. Rukia stood at the door. She didn't know what she was feeling, but she was glad she was back too… maybe even just a little bit. Her mind wandered to Ichigo, and all feelings she just had just broke off into little pieces. She entered the Kuchiki compound and headed off to bed, not thinking of either of the men.

Orihime jumped back as the hollow slammed its hand in her path. The road cracked, and the seismic waves caused the building behind her to fall. Her orange shield shattered as the foundation of the building behind her came crumbling down in a wave of dust and debris. Orihime braced herself, getting grazed just a bit, yet later she felt wind blowing through her hair instead. She looked up at her savior and saw glasses sitting on his face.

The man dropped her next to Ichigo, pulled out his arrow and attacked the hollow. "Just leave this to me Soul Reaper," he yelled to Ichigo.

"Why don't you just leave it to me. No one asked you to be here." Orihime looked back and forth between them, trying to put the pieces together.

"Do you know each other?" Ichigo jumped into the air, and as the hollow dodged the Quincy's arrow, he sent out a getsuga tenshou and defeated the hollow.

"Yeah I know him."

"My name is Uryu Ishida, nice to meet you."

Orihime bowed to him. "Thank you for saving me."

"It's no problem. If this idiot here would do his job…"

"I was, and I got it done. Let's go Orihime." Ichigo led the way back to Urahara's shop, since they were already so close to it.

Orihime noticed once again, that something was troubling the man. This time she wanted to know what. She stepped in front of him, and he nearly walked into her. "Hey, what's wrong? You've been like this since we met. Are you doing okay… have you been using the bathroom regularly?"

A smile crossed Ichigo's face. He didn't want to speak of Rukia at all, but that wasn't what was troubling him this time. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you…"

"Is that it?" laughed Orihime, "I should've have been more helpful anyways…" Her hair whipped behind her as she turned around to go to the shop; Ichigo grabbed her shoulders.

"I'm sorry… let me make it up to you."

"I really don't think…" started Orihime, but she saw the need in Ichigo's eyes. He needed to repay her for his lack of strength. She conceded to his will. "Alright, I have just the way."

It was another day of work for Rukia, and it was the same old thing of paperwork. Had she really been gone that long that she forgot how boring being a soul reaper could be? She watched as Renji stamped the documents as if that was the job that would get him to the next level. She silently snickered, and got back to her own job of signing the unstamped documents. Her mind drifted back again to her childhood friend. Renji had been there for her since they were young lost souls, just looking out for one another.

Renji looked up at her and smiled, causing her to look back down at the papers. She was acting like a school girl, and she didn't play that role! Ichigo could never make her feel that way… She was walking in the halls with Renji by her side when Momo, Ikaku, Rangiku, and Hisagi came up to her. Rukia was pulled into a hug by Momo.

"Rukia! We wanted to go out today; do you think you can join?"

"Um…"

"Oh come on," said Rangiku, "you know you want to celebrate with all of your old friends."

"Okay then," said Rukia as they all walked to the local bar.

They were sitting at the table, talking about the past. "I remember when Rukia left…" said a drunken Rangiku, "Renji wanted to go say by to her but he didn't."

"Yeah, after four years of not talking to her, he still wouldn't until he turned lieutenant." Ikaku said. Renji looked across the table to Rukia, growing red in the face.

"It was so cute to see how much Renji cared about what Rukia thought of him," laughed Rangiku. Renji stood up and clamped his hands over her mouth. "What are you doing Renji?"

"Shut up…" Rangiku started to fight with Renji, trying to pry him off while the others sat there laughing. Rukia realized that that was in fact true. The promise that Renji made to her long ago was fulfilled and he really didn't go after her until he fulfilled it. It made her really look back at everything that she had been through with him. Those worriless days when they were kids and the days they shared to this day. Whatever her outcome was she knew that the feelings she knew she had for Renji were growing.

Ichigo stared at the food sitting in front of him. "My friends always say that I have weird tastes, but I just don't get it. Why don't you tell me what you think?" Ichigo watched as the woman blithely ate the food, a smile on her face as the contents went down her mouth. He looked back down at his, and gulped back his fear.

It was rice, that much he was sure of, but it had a myriad of other food items topping it, such as berries, Lemon Heads, and a raw green pepper. He picked it up slowly, and ate the Lemon Heads first. Better to start with something you're familiar with. After finishing the little lemon balls, he went for the berries, and then the pepper, and then finally finished the rice.

"So, how did you like it?" said Orihime. She looked at Ichigo and saw a frown upon his face. "You didn't like it?"

Ichigo immediately sat up causing a cup to spill on the floor, unnoticed by the two. "No, no, I loved it! Can I have seconds?" The bowl was held out, and Orihime left the table to bring back another bowlful. On her way back, she accidently stepped onto the spilt water, and tripped. The rice flew up into the air, and it tumbled onto the floor as Orihime fell safely into Ichigo's arms. "I saved you this time…" he said half arrogantly. Orihime stared into his eyes, and nodded; she was speechless.

Ichigo helped her stand, and just couldn't help smelling the light mango scent drifting from her hair. He took an unconscious step forward and without any warning, kissed the woman. The kiss itself was short and sweet, because by the time Ichigo knew what he was doing, he stopped himself. He couldn't lie to himself; that kiss had sparked in him what Rukia had the first time they had gotten together, but the thought of Rukia cleared his mind.

"I'm sorry…" Ichigo said as he ran through the night back to the once safe apartment walls of his.

Renji and Rukia were back at the Kuchiki compound. Renji still hadn't fully looked at Rukia since they parted ways with their friends. "I'm sorry about that. They talk too much. Anyways, I'll see you later."

"Why did you let me go all those years?"

"Huh?" asked Renji turning back around.

"When Byakuya came to get me, if you would have said something, you know I would've said no."

"Rukia," he said now walking to her, a sad smile on his face. "I only wanted the best for you. I knew you would've stayed with me, but if you lived with Byakuya, you wouldn't have had to worry about living the way we did."

"I had no problem living with you the way we did. We were together, that was all that mattered! You ruined that the instant you let Byakuya take me without a fight!"

"No matter how you feel about it now, I don't regret what I did. I still had to struggle, but you didn't. That's all that I wanted and that's what we both got. So let's drop it okay?" All was quiet for a while. Renji looked at Rukia who seemed to want to say something.

"Do you still love me?" she asked. "After all these years, do you still love me?"

"Rukia…"

"Just answer the question Renji." He still didn't say anything even with all her prodding. "If you had just fought for me then, I would've still loved you the way I do now…" she said her head down and her voice low, "without feeling guilty about hurting Ichigo." She ran to Renji, placing a deep kiss onto his lips. He kissed back, pushing her onto the wall of the house. They parted ways as their breathing became heavy. They looked each other in the eye, and without another word they kissed again, making their way over to Rukia's bedroom.

Ichigo walked to the Urahara shop early the next morning with aggression. He stormed into the room where Kisuke was sitting and demanded that he get him into the Soul Society. "Now why would I do a thing like that Ichigo?"

"I need to see Rukia right now."

"Is that all? I can do that easy!" he said laughing, "Tessai."

"Yes."

"Let's get Ichigo to the Soul Society." The portal was prepared, and in the underground training room, Ichigo went through to the other side. "You can come out now Mrs. Inoue." Orihime laughed and scratched her head.

"How did you know that I was here?"

"It wasn't that hard. Now Ichigo shouldn't be too far if you get started now."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Who said I wanted to go—"

"Time's a-wasting Orihime so…"

"Thank you Urahara."

Ichigo reached the Kuchiki compound and knocked at the door. A servant had come by, asking the man what he wanted. "I need to see Rukia."

"Can I ask who you are?" said the servant.

"Just tell her it's Ichigo."

"Very well, wait here sir." The servant entered the house, going straight to Rukia's room. He knocked on the door. "Ms. Rukia?"

"Yes," she yelled back, not bothering to open the door.

"There's a man here; he says his name is Ichigo and he wishes to speak to you."

"Thank you. I'll be out in just a minute." Rukia looked at Renji lying beside her. "I knew it was only a matter of time. What am I going to do?"

"Just tell him the truth."

"I don't think… how can I tell him without hurting him?"

"You'll find a way Rukia," said Renji, giving her a small kiss as they both got up to get dressed.

Orihime had been thinking about the kiss that Ichigo gave her ever since last night. She felt there was something, something lying underneath all of Ichigo's evasiveness that made her only want to ask him about it even more. She followed his path stealthily, making sure not to get caught by the soul reapers walking around. She had a feeling that it'd be a bad idea to be seen. She followed for a couple of more minutes until she saw him standing alone in a really huge yard. Orihime walked up to him, trying to make this as quick and painless as possible.

"Ichigo," she said.

"Orihime, what are you doing here?"

"Listen, I need to talk to you."

"About what?" He looked back to the door of the house as if expecting something.

"You know about what. The kiss. Why did you kiss me?"

"Orihime, it was just an accident… it didn't mean anything."

"Don't tell me it meant nothing. I felt it, there was something there."

"No Orihime. There was no feeling there. It was just an accident so if you don't mind…"

"No Ichigo," she yelled tears pooling around her eyes, "I felt it and I know you did. I love you…" The door opened and Renji and Rukia walked over to the duo as they finished arguing.

"Well I don't love you, I'm sorry!" he yelled. He looked to the door, and the moment Ichigo saw Rukia, he ran to her, grabbing her and turning her in the air. He kissed her, a long desperate, longing kiss. A kiss someone would give to somebody after they had cheated or something similar…

"I missed you so much Rukia." She laughed nervously.

"I missed you to Ichigo, but I have to tell you…" Their eyes met, and she saw the pain that literally filled Ichigo's eyes. It wasn't hard for her to see but something was up. Orihime watched the two of them and realized why Ichigo kept denying her, denying his own feelings. He loved that girl, or he thought he did, and nothing would change that. Orihime figured she wouldn't have a chance. As the tears flowed down harder, Rukia saw her and asked who she was.

"Oh this is Orihime Inoue. She works with me for Kisuke." Said Ichigo.

"Nice to meet you," said Rukia extending her hand, feeling bad that she could do nothing for her. "I'm Rukia and that over there is Renji." Through a strained voice, Orihime returned the greeting. Renji was in the same boat as Orihime. He wanted nothing but to pull Rukia away from Ichigo, or blurt it out himself, but he knew it was her job to tell Ichigo; he had waited this long already, what's another couple of days…

Rukia, Orihime, and Ichigo were back at the underground training room, and Kisuke was waiting for them. Rukia and Ichigo left after saying their goodbyes, but Orihime stayed behind. "Urahara…" He looked at her. "I can't work for you anymore. I'm sorry."

"Orihime…" he spoke concerned.

~Several months later~

It hadn't taken Ichigo long to notice some problems with his renewed relationship with Rukia. The kisses they shared weren't at all like from before. They never saw eye to eye, and Rukia wasn't herself. She held things from him, kind of like how he held his feelings from Orihime that day. His thoughts now rested on Orihime. He asked for her plenty at work, but Kisuke wouldn't tell him anything. He went to her house, but she was never there. It surprised Ichigo how much he really cared that she was gone, how much he wanted her back. Rukia sat down on the bed with a deep sigh.

"Rukia what's going on?"

"Oh nothing. Don't worry about it."

"I see it in your eyes. You aren't at all as happy as when we were together before. What happened?"

"I can't tell you Ichigo. I don't want to hurt you." She kissed him and lie down, covering herself with the bed sheets.

"I want you to be happy, and I know you aren't happy anymore." Rukia didn't reply; she was thinking about Renji. "I have to tell you something too." She sat up worried. "I'm sorry for you not being happy, but I can't keep lying to myself. I think I'm in love with somebody else." Rukia looked at him, a small smile crossing her face.

"Who?"

"Orihime. I can't stop thinking about her, and I'm worried. I haven't seen her for months and I just…"

"I understand Ichigo. I loved you, but it's always been Renji whom I loved, and been in love with. It just took a little while for me to figure that out. I'm sorry for lying to you too. Go to her, go find Orihime, and apologize for the both of us."

"Thank you Rukia." She gave him a small and final peck as Ichigo raced to the door and through the night.

Ichigo went to the only two spots he knew. One was her house, and the other was Urahara's shop. He stormed the room, and found Kisuke sitting at the table with Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu. Kisuke smiled at him, taking a sip of his rice wine.

"What can I do you for?"

"Where's Orihime? You wouldn't have just let her leave like that!"

"Why do you want to see her?"

"I need to talk to her, can't you just tell me where she is?" Small footsteps were heard, and they all saw a body walking into the room, setting down a tray of food. It took a while before Orihime noticed that Ichigo was in the room, but when she did, she tried to run. Ichigo pulled at her, bringing her into the room she had just came from; the other residents had followed closely behind.

"What do you want from me? I know you love someone else. I gave up already."

"No, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. You were right. I was disregarding my real feelings. I did feel it, that spark between us."

"Ichigo…"

"Orihime, it was you that I loved… it is you that I love. Everyday, I would ask for you."

"I know. I've been here since day one, avoiding you at any cost."

"…but why did you quit? I was worried sick."

"I didn't want to get in between the two of you, after seeing the way you looked at her, I knew I didn't stand a chance."

"I'm here now Orihime. I know what I was missing. It truly wasn't the same after the kiss… I could only think about you, but I wanted to hold on to whatever past Rukia and I had; I didn't want to hurt her."

"And it took you this long to realize it?" she asked.

"No," he whispered, closing in on her face, "it just took me this long to take some action." He went in more to kiss her. As soon as his lips touched hers, the spark was back. No thoughts of Rukia filled Ichigo's mind, and no thoughts of the earlier events pooled Orihime's. Both of them could only think about the here and now, and what was going on between them. They pulled away and smiled at each other.

Rukia arrived back at her house. She still hadn't seen Renji yet. He wasn't at his house, and none of the other members knew where he was. She stepped into the living room, to say hi to her brother when Renji pops out of nowhere and embraces her, bringing her up in the air.

"Renji!" she yelled.

"Happy to see me?" She punched his arm and he gently dropped her to the floor.

"Things are finally as they should be."

"Yeah," said Renji kissing Rukia passionately. Byakuya was still in the room with them, trying to get their attention by clearing his throat.

"If you are going to that," he said in his sophisticated voice, "then do it elsewhere." They laughed as they moved their earlier activities to Rukia's bedroom.

Kisuke and the others went back to the tatami mats as Ichigo and Orihime headed for the front door. Kisuke smiled behind his hand fan. "I do good work don't I? Hiring Inoue to make Ichigo forget about Rukia was a great idea. It's great to have a friend like me," laughed Urahara more to himself than anybody else.

-X-

A/N: I know. I think Ichigo is OOC if nothing else than a smidge and same for Rukia, a little bit more than a smidge, but if you don't think so, then yay! I'm just glad that its finito… Anyway thanks for reading!


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